Quickity quick, sweet, smooth, lemony cheesecake with not the merest hint of an oven to preheat.  I made the cheesecake with Splenda (one of our Sunday luncheon guests has diabetes) and made the sauce with maple syrup (for the rest of us sugar eaters). I’m all about personal responsibility, me.

Puddings are a challenge when one has to limit the sugar in them. You have no idea how tempted I was to just slap an apple on each placemat. Turns out that apples aren’t that great either – it’s all about the berries, you know? Just not the berries with maple syrup on them.

I made another berried dessert that he could eat, but that will have to wait for the next blog entry…

Line the bottom of an 8″ springform tin with a circle of baking paper.
Combine 125g vanilla butter biscuit or digestive biscuit crumbs and 75g melted butter together and press them onto the bottom and (very) slightly up the side – just enough to make a little biscuit lip.

Beat together 300g cream cheese, 60g icing sugar or 5 dessertspoons Splenda, 1 tsp vanilla and the juice and zest of 1 lemon, until smooth.

Smoooooooooooooooth

Lightly whip 300ml double cream, adding another 2 dessertspoons Splenda when it’s nearly there.

Fold the two mixtures together and spoon over the base,

level with a spatula and refrigerate overnight.

Whilst that’s chillaxing (*cough*) in the fridge, put a 200g punnet of blueberries and 125 ml (1/2 cup) maple syrup in a saucepan

You don’t need a picture of maple syrup being poured over blueberries, but I liked the picture, so here it is.

Bring to the boil (as per the picture), but then reduce the heat to simmer for about 3 minutes

Decant to a bowl and serve either warm, at room temperature or chilled.

Then take your cheesecake and run a spatula around the edge and un-spring the tin to release.
Hopefully, the baking paper will allow you to get under the base with a metal spatula to remove the bottom of the tin – and the paper.

Put on a pretty (weird) stand or plate and cut into slices… ahem, this is not a slice – this is all that was left after the slicing.

… and spoon the maple blueberry over each sugar-eater’s slice,hoping Goodness to Aunt Betty that you’ve given everyone the correct slice.

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Unbaked Lemon Cheesecake with Maple Blueberry Sauce

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The Unbaked Lemon Cheesecake

(adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe)

125g vanilla or digestive biscuits, reduced to crumbs
75g unsalted butter, melted
300g cream cheese
60g icing sugar OR 5 dessertspoons Splenda
1 tsp vanilla extract
juice and zest 1 lemon
300ml double cream, whipped
2 dessertspoons Splenda

Line the bottom of an 8″ springform tin with a circle of baking paper.
Combine the biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press them onto the bottom and (very) slightly up the side – just enough to make a little biscuit lip.

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar or Splenda, vanilla and lemon juice and zest, until smooth.

Lightly whip the cream, adding the extra 2 dessertspoons Splenda when it’s nearly there.

Fold the two mixtures together.

Spoon over the base, level with a spatula and refrigerate overnight.
Run a spatula around the edge and un-spring the tin to release.
Hopefully, the baking paper will allow you to get under the base with a metal spatula to remove the bottom of the tin – and the paper.

Serve slices as is or with a spoonful of the maple blueberries.

Maple Blueberry Sauce

(Nigella Lawson – recipe originally as a sauce for pancakes)

200g punnet blueberries
125ml (1/2 cup) maple syrup

Put the blueberries and maple syrup into a small pan.
Bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Decant to a bowl and serve either warm, at room temperature or chilled.
Will keep in the fridge for a few days.

AKA American buttermilk pancakes with banana slices in them… drowned in maple syrup.  Oh, yes please!

My Mum and MIL dined on these in Hong Kong when I was a toddler, the memory remained and the recipe, whilst it has morphed with input from both Mum and me over the years (decades actually, eek!) is still as sigh-inducing as always. I often wonder what I was eating whilst they stuffed banana hotcakes down their throats. Probably best not to know, really. It would only be upsetting.

Sift 110g plain flour, 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp sugar into a medium bowl.

Pour 170ml buttermilk into a jug, then into that whisk 1 large egg and 1 tbsp very soft unsalted butter.

Pour the liquid onto the flour and whisk together to get a smooth, thick batter. If it’s a bit too stiff for your liking, add another tbsp or so of buttermilk. You don’t want it too liquid though.

Thick, innit?

Slice a banana (this was a bit mean actually – it only worked out to about 2 slices per pancake)

Heat a mean slick of butter in a frying pan and spoon out your pancakes. Make them whatever size you like. I usually do a heaping dessertspoon of batter for each.

Carefully site your slices of banana on top of each pancake. I press them down a bit to bed them in.

Once the bubbles appear, it’s time to flip them over.

Flip! Mmm… you might like to use a spatula/fish slice type thing. This isn’t really in the pancake tossing set.

Keep them warm and serve, or if you like running backwards and forwards to the kitchen, make them to order, as it were.

Be sure to crack open the maple syrup….

They’re fluffy, so they like to soak up plenty of maple syrup. Mind you, they never manage to soak up the amount that Alex pours over them, so let that be a lesson. To someone?

Treat yourself this weekend hey?

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Banana Hotcakes

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110g plain flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp sugar

170ml buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tbsp very soft unsalted butter.
1 or 2 bananas, sliced

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb into a medium bowl.
Measure the buttermilk into a jug, then whisk in the egg and butter.
Once it’s combined, pour the liquid onto the flour and whisk together to get a smooth, thick batter. If it’s a bit too stiff for your liking, add another tbsp or so of buttermilk. You don’t want it too liquid though.
Slice up a banana or two.

Heat a mean slick of butter in a frying pan and spoon out your pancakes. Make them whatever size you like. I usually do a heaping dessertspoon of batter for each.
Carefully site your slices of banana on top of each pancake. I press them down a bit to bed them in.

Once the bubbles appear, it’s time to flip them over. You might like to use a spatula/fish slice type thing. This isn’t really in the pancake tossing set.
Keep them warm whilst you finish up the batter and serve, drenched in maple syrup.

I’ve wanted to make American ‘chocolate pudding’ for ages because the ‘pudding mix’ is used extensively in baking and we don’t have it over here. There are hundreds of recipes for pudding from scratch, but I settled on one from ‘Diner Desserts’. It’s actually a section of the recipe for Chocolate Cream Pie. It’s so rich, I can’t imagine a slice of it with cream on top, but you know… never say never.

Describing it isn’t as straightforward as it seems. I was expecting a set chocolate custard, but it wasn’t that, nor was it blancmange. Somewhere between blancmange and ganache and deeply, deeply pleasing. The most fun I’ve had with a whisk for ages. Probably.

Put 1 1/4 cups of milk, 1 cup of sugar and 4 oz chopped (OK, I admit, I just snapped it into bits) dark chocolate into a medium saucepan over a low-medium heat.
Stir with a whisk to melt the sugar and chocolate.

Meanwhile, sift 3 level tbsp cornflour, 1 tbsp cocoa and a pinch of salt into a medium bowl.

Combine 1/2 cup double or single cream and 1/2 cup milk together. Add a little of that to the contents of the bowl and whisk to make a smooth paste. Gradually add the rest of the creamy milk, whisking as you go. You don’t want lumpy cornflour, so go slowly and whisk well. Keep an eye on that saucepan whilst you’re at it…

So, back to the saucepan. Once the sugar has melted and the chocolate has melted (it’ll still stay in little flecks, but there won’t be any solids, so to speak), take 1/2 a cup of it out

and whisking, with fear of lumps, add it to the creamy-milky cornflour

You’ve vaguely tempered it by doing that, so go ahead and add the bowl contents into the saucepan for cooking. Whisk, whisk, whisk.

Put the saucepan back on the heat and whisk it constantly. When it starts to bubble, continue to cook – whisking still – for another minute. It’ll get thicker and thicker!

After the minute has passed, whisk a tbsp of unsalted butter and a dash of vanilla extract into it – a matter of seconds.

Scrape the pudding into individual pots, ramekins, glasses, cups, whatever. The mugs you see are espresso sized and I didn’t fill them up – this stuff is rich, so don’t be too generous with the serving.

Press a piece of clingfilm to the surface of each pudding portion, cool them then sit in the fridge to chill. As an experiment, I left one uncovered because Ian loves the skin on rice pudding. No, don’t do it – pudding skin is very different – it’s tougher and interrupts the silkiness of the texture.

It is so chocolatey, such a treat. Delicious.

Chocolate Pudding

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adapted from part of a recipe in ‘Diner Desserts’

1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup caster sugar
4 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped

3 level tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp cocoa
pinch salt
1 cup made up of 1/2 double cream and 1/2  milk

1 tbsp unsalted butter
dash of vanilla extract

Put the 1 1/4 cups of milk, sugar and dark chocolate into a medium saucepan over a low-medium heat.
Stir with a whisk to melt the sugar and chocolate.

Meanwhile, sift the cornflour, cocoa and salt into a medium bowl.
Add a little of the cream-milk mixture and whisk to make a smooth paste.
Gradually add the rest of the cream-milk mix to it – whisking all the time.

Once the chocolate in the saucepan has melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the cornflour mix.
Then pour, whisking constantly, the whole lot back into the saucepan to cook.
Put the saucepan back on the heat and whisk it constantly. When it starts to bubble, continue to cook – whisking still – for another minute.

Take the pan off the heat and drop the tbsp of butter in – whisk that in and then the vanilla extract.

Scrape the pudding into individual pots, glasses or dishes. It’s rich, so you might regret being too generous with the portions.
Press clingfilm on to the surface of each pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Cool, then chill in the fridge.

Puff pastry, sweet gooey marzipan, juicy baked fruit and it is ready to dazzle in around 30 minutes.

Oh yeah baby.

My Mum always has puff pastry in the freezer and is a master of fruit tarts; therefore, I have inherited this love and have moved to new heights of pleasure as a result of my recent love affair with marzipan. I can’t get enough of the stuff – it’s most peculiar. Only warm though – I’ll probably still pick it off fruit cakes, but we’ll wait and see what Christmas brings before I commit to that.

You know, if you don’t like marzipan, just leave it out of this recipe; just put the fruit on the pastry and serve – maybe with a little whipped cream? Just a suggestion…

These are SO easy and SO delicious, it’s incredible.

First, get a pack of butter puff pastry from the supermarket (or drive over to your Mum’s and use hers because you have run out and didn’t realise). It really must be butter.

This is one of the 2 pieces in the pack – each weighing 250g.

Roll it out and cut into squares, triangles, circles (use a cookie cutter), whatever size and shape you fancy. You don’t have to be precise and mathematical – it’ll rise and puff in the oven anyway.

Roll out some marzipan to a similar thickness, although that’s not terribly important either, and either cut it to fit like a slightly smaller sheet over the pastry, or cut into thin strips like I did here. Lay it on top of the pastry.

Get some fruit out – I used sliced nectarines, blueberries and raspberries (from our garden!). Consider peaches, figs, blackberries, loganberries, thinly sliced apple, pear,plums? Arrange the fruit on top of the marzipan.

So pretty.

Sieve some icing sugar over them – or caster sugar if you like

Bake at GM6/400F/200C for 20 mins.

Remove to a wire rack to cool and add some more icing sugar if you wish. It’s just so patisserie, but so easy.

They’re lovely at room temperature and positively addictive when still slightly warm from the oven. Of all the things I bake, this is the one thing I have most trouble walking away from. I could clear that wire rack in minutes, I tell you.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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Marzipan Fruit Puff Tarts

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500g all butter puff pastry – thawed if frozen
500g marzipan
1 nectarine
some raspberries
some blueberries
icing sugar

Preheat oven to GM6/400F/200C

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a coin.
Cut into shapes – squares, strips, circles (use a cookie cutter), triangles or just make one large tart.

Roll the marzipan out to a similar thickness.
Cut shapes just slightly smaller than the ones you have cut the pastry into, or cut the marzipan into thin-ish strips and nestle them on top of the pastry.

Arrange the fruit of your choice on top of the marzipan.
Consider most fruits (I wouldn’t recommend strawberries or bananas – they can go a bit weird in the oven) such as sliced peaches, figs, blackberries, loganberries, thinly sliced apple, pear, plums, anything you fancy.

Dust with icing sugar and bake for 20 mins.

Remove to a wire rack to cool. Dust with more icing sugar if you think it could take it. Serve at room temperature or warm – reheat for 5 mins if necessary.